The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” writes about her descent into madness. Charlotte was a strong female role model throughout her life, believing that women should not be subjected to a stereotypical housewife. Charlotte dedicated her life to liberate women from the masculine world of their time. However, before she could make any changes in the lives of other women, she must go through her own changes. After marrying Charles Stetson she began the role as housewife and nine months later gave birth to their daughter Katherine. Now, as a housewife she began to be torn between the life she had and the life she wanted. Charlotte spiraled into postpartum depression and began treatment with S. Weir Mitchell. She later wrote an exposition about the struggles she went through as his patient. …show more content…
Jane is forced to be isolated in a rental home for the summer. There she will undergo a treatment that will only cause her more anguish. John believes that his method of treatment called the “rest cure” will help his wife with her depression. The “rest cure” was a treatment to help women who were having problems with hysteria and depression. However, Jane is not convinced that her husband’s treatment will help her. The story produces strong imagery for the reader. Jane repetitively talks about the yellow wallpaper in the room and how she personifies it as faces of women behind the paper moving and creeping around the room. The women are representations of how the female role was treated at that time. Women in the 1890’s had little say in the matters of the male dominated world. Women especially in the middle-class had strict obligations they needed to follow such as, marrying a man and raising a family while the husband provided the income. Anything shy of these obligations was dismissed and ridiculed in the eyes of